


I Don't Like Your Boyfriend

by emmagnetised



Series: All The Little Lights [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen, Mild Angst, Multi, The Avengers Won, The Wyvern, Tony Stark's Sister, one shots, team fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2019-12-26 03:49:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18275168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmagnetised/pseuds/emmagnetised
Summary: "Barnes." Tony's voice was casual and acknowledging, almost like a… like a greeting.Bucky's head snapped up, his eyes wide, and Tony nodded at him.For a good minute of silence Bucky just stared. Tony watched him from across the kitchen, his arms crossed over his chest as he waited for his coffee to finish brewing.Then Bucky's brain kicked back into gear. "Sta- Tony." The name he'd settled on twisted up at the end, as if in a question.Tony didn't look like he knew the answer.





	1. Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for letting me know your favorite Wyvern moments, it's been nice to hear what you loved and what you go back to reread.
> 
> Some people may not have gotten an email alert, but I posted another one shot on Monday called "Formation". If you haven't read it yet, go check it out!

 Tony had four issues with James Buchanan Barnes:

1) He'd killed his parents.

2) He'd kidnapped his sister.

3) He was the catalyst of many of the issues which tore apart the Avengers and Tony's life two years ago.

4) He was dating his sister.

Now, 1-3 he knew were perfectly reasonable issues to hold against a person.  _Except._ Except, he knew very well that none of those were Barnes' fault. He knew that Barnes didn't want that. He. Knew.

But he still couldn't stop his blood boiling every time he saw Barnes, couldn't help looking away.

 _Get over it._ He sensed those words in the way his team looked at him, he even felt the words churning through his own mind: it was an urge.  _Just let it go_. Everyone else had. So why couldn't he?

He knew it wasn't rational, and that frustrated him to no end. He knew, logically, that he had no reason for the anger – and  _fear_ – that prickled over him when he saw Barnes' face. But logic had no place amongst the painful memories lodged in his chest, right where the arc reactor used to be. That empty, painful place inside him remembered his mom's choking gasps, remembered Maggie's childlike scream, remembered remembered remembered. He couldn't just ignore it.

And as for issue #4… Before the Avengers got back together, Tony had perfected the art of ignoring Bucky Barnes' existence. He could deal with Maggie talking about him, he could even deal knowing that she loved him. Tony listened, and then erased Barnes from his mind.

But that was a hell of a lot harder now that Barnes was actually physically  _here._

 

The fact that Barnes and Maggie's rooms were on opposite sides of the Avengers' residential area had not stopped them spending inordinate amounts of time together. They ate breakfast together, watched movies, went for walks, visited the city, trained in the gym. Barnes was still getting used to the Facility so she showed him around. They weren't joined at the hip, but they were… together. Very obviously.

Tony watched. Not in a creepy way, he hoped, but a part of him thought that if he observed the two of them together he could begin to understand – understand how Maggie could be around Barnes without seeing those empty, cold eyes glittering with firelight. How she could hold his hand without seeing it wrapped around mom's neck.

To his irritation, Maggie didn't act differently around Barnes – she was just  _Maggie_. She teased, and laughed, and went off on long tangents about whatever research she was up to. Barnes listened to the tangents with a look of adoring confusion that made Tony's teeth grind. They didn't touch all that much in public (partly out of deference to him, Tony suspected) but the touches they did share were gentle, full of reassurance or affection or mirth. They had in-jokes. After a few days of careful observation Tony noticed that they had an uncanny ability to pick each other out in a crowd – when Barnes walked into a room packed with Avengers his eyes unfailingly fell on Maggie first, and vice versa. They seemed to revolve in each other's orbit, always aware of each other and able to move and communicate without words. It was spooky.

But they were by far the least overt couple in the Facility. Wanda and Vision walked around hand-in-hand as if they would fall apart if they weren't attached (though they were still a relatively new couple), and Tony knew that himself and Pepper weren't exactly shy about PDA.

In battle and in training, Barnes and Maggie were even more spookily in-sync. That was what unnerved him the most, actually: seeing that hint of how they'd been as the Winter Soldier and the Wyvern. But then he'd see the look on Barnes' face as he watched Maggie soaring through the sky, or he'd catch Maggie watching Barnes as he sparred with Steve or looked down his rifle scope, and the unnerved feeling changed into just… discomfort. Not because he saw something wrong, but because it was getting harder and harder to deny what they meant to each other.

When they didn't know Tony was listening, Maggie and Barnes traded pet names and charged teasing, their heads bent together as if they were sharing a secret. Barnes called her  _Meg._ What the hell was that about? Tony couldn't even ask because that would reveal that he'd been paying any attention whatsoever to Barnes, and that… wasn't ideal.

Tony accepted Barnes' presence, but didn't interact with him. Whenever they happened to come across each other alone they'd each look away and carry on with whatever they were doing. They lived in the same space and fought the same battles, but they didn't acknowledge each other's presence. It was safer that way.

 

* * *

 

One weekend, Maggie and Tony spent all Saturday in the workshop working on various Avenger uniforms – Tony would never admit it to anyone but he  _loved_ it, creating a uniform that enhanced each team member's skillset and weapons arsenal. He and Maggie worked well together, talking through the engineering issues and throwing ideas around.

On the Sunday, Maggie made two glasses of the green smoothie he liked and they walked out into the warm sunshine outside the Facility, talking about the Iron Man armor and the upcoming wedding.

Tony felt relaxed, and well-rested, and…  _hang on_.

He stopped dead and narrowed his eyes at Maggie. "What are you doing?"

She blinked at him, the picture of innocence. "I'm sorry?"

He pointed at her. "No, I know what you're doing. The workshop, the smoothie, the talking up my armor – you're buttering me up for something."

She held the innocent expression for a second longer, then sighed. "Fine, you got me. Can we sit down?"

He gestured for her to go ahead, his eyes still narrowed, and he followed her to one of the picnic tables outside the main Facility building. They sat opposite each other and Tony crossed his arms across his chest.

Maggie visibly rallied herself. "I was  _going_ to ease into this naturally, but I should've known better. I think you and I need to have a talk."

He grimaced.  _Oh, I know what this is about._

"Yes," she said, as if she could read his thoughts, and then took a deep breath. "I'm in a relationship with Bucky." He stiffened, but she kept talking. "I know you and I have always skirted around this, but I need you to know that Bucky and I are together and that's not going away. I'm not saying this to hurt you, or to get you to do anything, but I think I owe you transparency." She took another deep breath. "Bucky and I have actually been in contact for a while."

He frowned, and his frown deepened when she lifted that black metal pendant she always wore.

"This is a Kimoyo bead. A couple of times during the whole trial thing, Sam got in contact with me. He offered me an out if I wanted it, and I think he and the others did a fair bit behind the scenes to help me out – that Red Room survivor? I think Natasha asked her to testify. The last time I saw Sam he gave me this Kimoyo bead, and a cure for my trigger words."

Tony sat back, his arms unconsciously uncrossing.

"Bucky had been in cryofreeze in Wakanda until they healed him, and as soon as they had the cure they offered it to me too." Her face was serious. "Once he was awake they gave him the twin to this bead and we were able to communicate – it was slow, and only text-based, but we've been exchanging letters ever since."

Tony's stomach twisted. He didn't know what his face showed her, but her eyes were filled with gravity as she went on: "I'm sorry for hiding it from you, I really am. I didn't want to involve you in me breaking the Accords by communicating with a fugitive, but I also… I think I was still afraid that you'd push me away." At the sudden indignant look on his face she held up a hand. "I know now that you wouldn't have, but I guess… I was scared. I…" she pushed her hair back from her forehead, seeming suddenly overwhelmed. "I can't help the way I feel about Bucky. And I'm not sorry for it. He is one of the best things that ever happened to me, and I want to be with him for the rest of my life." Her tone was calm as she spoke, as if she were explaining some project design she'd come up with. " _But_. I don't expect or demand that you feel a certain way; you're entitled to your emotions, and I wouldn't ever take that away from you."

"So why the talk," Tony said, his voice flat. This wasn't the talk he'd been expecting. He'd been expecting ' _it wasn't Bucky's fault'_ , or ' _why can't you just be happy for me'._

Maggie eyed him warily before she replied. "I want you to know how I feel. You once told me…" she swallowed. "You once told me that I don't have to be sorry."

He remembered – after she'd been high on Maggia hallucinogens, rambling about her metal-armed boyfriend. The next morning she'd said sorry and he'd said  _you don't have to be._ He'd meant it.

"I hope that one day, things might be okay between all of us," Maggie said softly. "I hope that one day, you and Bucky might get along. But that's just a hope, and if it never comes true then I'll be okay. Like I said, you are entitled to the way you feel. I want you to know that if you ever feel uncomfortable, or disrespected, or concerned, you can talk to me." Her eyes glimmered. "That's… that's what I wanted to say. You don't have to say anything. I just wanted to let you know."

With that she rose from her seat, circled the picnic table, and leaned down to wrap her arms around him. He didn't move; too lost in staring at the empty space where she'd just been sitting. After a few seconds she let go and walked away.

Tony didn't say anything. Although, half an hour later when he was still sitting there staring into empty space, he really wished he had.

 

That afternoon Tony wandered into his and Pepper's suite of rooms. They were meant to discuss details about the wedding, and Pepper had a huge stack of papers on the coffee table in front of her.

But she took one look at him when he walked in and said: "Oh dear. Something happened with Maggie, didn't it?"

He looked up. "There's no way you figured that out from my face."

She arched an eyebrow. "Yes way." She held up her left hand and waggled her ring at him. "Fiancée, remember? I think I know you pretty well."

He slumped toward the couch and collapsed dramatically onto it. "Still, how did you know it was about Maggie?"

Pepper got to her feet, padded across the room and perched on the arm of the couch. She reached down and brushed a tender finger against the furrow between his brows. "You only look like  _that_  when it's about Maggie. So what happened?"

He sighed – dramatic, again. "Go on, Ms Mind Reader."

She cocked her head, peering down at him. He looked up at her, watching the way the sunlight cast a golden halo around her strawberry blonde hair. They'd both changed so much since he first put on the armor. Tony found himself reflecting that she was somehow softer these days, and yet so much stronger.

Pepper's brows drew together. "Oh. It's about Bucky."

"Bu– since when is he  _Bucky_?" Tony sat bolt upright and spun so he could face her.

"Since it was his name, Tony," Pepper replied patiently, her eyes calm.

"It's a stupid name–"

"– and since I got to know him," she continued.

Tony shut his mouth so hard his teeth clacked.

She took in his stony expression and sighed. "Tony, if you don't blame Maggie for the things she did under HYDRA then you can't blame him. You know you can't."

"I  _know_ ," he said, throwing up his hands and falling back on the couch again. "Despite what everyone seems to believe I  _am_ capable of understanding the situation. But Pepper…" he met her eyes. "I watched him  _kill my mom_."

"And so did Maggie," she said lowly, and reached down to rest her hand on his knee. Her eyes welled. "I'm not telling you to get over it. That's something that no one should have to go through. But…" she bit her lip. "Maggie doesn't love the man who killed your parents – the Winter Soldier. Maggie loves  _Bucky_. And she loves you. That's a difficult situation for her."

"And I'm making it more difficult," he inferred.

"That's not what I was going to say," she sighed. "He's a nice person, Tony. He's polite, he's funny, he's very sweet to Maggie–"

"That's the problem, it's making it harder for me to dislike him."

" _Tony_ ," she sighed, and slipped off the arm of the couch so she lay half on him, half by his side on the couch. He adjusted so her pointy elbows weren't digging into him, and she took advantage of his distraction and kissed his forehead. "I'm always on your side, you know that. If you want to talk more then I'm always here. But it sounds like this is something you need to figure out in your own head. And in here." She laid her hand over his chest, her thumb sweeping over where the arc reactor used to be.

They lay in silence like that for a few minutes, Pepper's hand on his chest and Tony's brain ticking over.

Until:

"Go on, read my mind. What am I thinking  _now_?"

Pepper took in the sudden gleam in his eye and his waggling eyebrows and laughed. "Funnily enough, I don't need mind reading powers to–" she cut herself off when she kissed him, and he pulled her in tighter.

 

* * *

 

Bruce was different after his time in space. He seemed more centered in himself, less like he was walking on eggshells, but he was still his soft-spoken, awkward self. He'd taken an interest in inter-dimensional physics and had been researching it in his very own Avengers Facility science lab, often collaborating with Dr Selvig and Dr Foster (who Tony had hired after stuff from space tried to kill them all again, along with her mouthy intern/research assistant/friend).

But today Bruce was working in Tony's workshop, the two of them designing a new and improved Hulk-proof room for the Facility. There'd always been one, even when Bruce had been missing, but now they were working on one that was less like a padded cell and more like an  _apartment._

"He had one in Sakaar," Bruce had explained. "It's not his fault he's angry, and even if he has to be kept away from others for their own safety… he's less likely to want to smash if he's surrounded by stuff he likes."

Tony had no arguments. And the challenge of combining near-impenetrable architecture with tasteful interior design proved to be a fun project.

He was having fun, which was why he even surprised himself when in the middle of the afternoon he blurted out: "What do you think of Barnes?"

Bruce looked up from his tensile strength projections, eyes wide. "Barnes?"

"You know,  _Bucky_ Barnes," he said, his mouth twisting at the stupid name. Then he hesitated. "Wait, you do know about… everything?"

Bruce adjusted his glasses. "I, uh… think so? I know… about your parents, and – I know there was a fight, and…" he kept fiddling with the glasses, avoiding Tony's gaze. "And… he and Maggie–"

"Okay, so you know everything," Tony waved his hand. "And?"

Bruce scratched the back of his neck. "I don't know if I should get involved–"

Right. The best way to get Bruce talking: annoy the shit out of him. Tony took a deep breath. "Bruce Bruce Bruce Bruce Bruce Bruce Bruce Bruce–"

"– Tony are you sure you want  _me_ to–"

"– _Bruce Bruce Bruce Bruce Bruce_ –"

"Okay, okay!" Bruce held up his hands in surrender and Tony refilled his lungs. Slowly, Bruce took off his glasses and tucked them into his lab coat pocket. When he met Tony's eyes again his face was serious. "I… I've only gotten to know Bu- Barnes a little, but he and I have gotten along pretty well so far. He isn't afraid of me because of the Hulk, which is… rare." At Tony's frown, Bruce smiled. "Less rare among this crowd." His smile slipped away and he took a long, slow breath. "I don't know the details of what Barnes went through – what your your sister went through – but I've gotten the broad strokes. I know they were controlled, I know they did terrible things."

"And… and you can just let it go?" Tony asked, his entire focus centered on his friend.

Bruce met his eyes. "Tony… I've killed people." He took a moment to let the words sink in. "I don't remember it, except maybe in flashes, but… people are dead because of something I couldn't control." His eyes went dark. "I think that's something you all forget sometimes."

And… and Bruce was Tony's  _friend_ , and the very thought that he felt guilt for those lives made Tony want to crumple something in his hands. His brain  _knew_ , could see all the parallels. And yet.

Bruce didn't beat Howard Stark's face into a pulp. Bruce didn't put his hand on Maria Stark's throat and squeeze. Bruce didn't grab Maggie, five years old and screaming, by her skinny arm and drag her toward men who would spend the next twenty years tearing her apart.

Tony took a shuddering breath and reached up to cover his eyes.

"Sorry," Bruce mumbled.

That startled a laugh out of Tony, and he looked up to see Bruce back to looking awkward again. "Don't be sorry, I basically just bullied you for your opinion. I'm just…" he gestured at himself, and then realized he didn't have any follow up words for the beginning of that sentence.

Bruce frowned sympathetically. "It's complicated."

"Ugh, Bruce, don't quote Meryl Streep movies at me." He clapped his hands together. "That reminds me: for the Hulk room windows we should look into nanotech. I've been working on making the tech transparent…" he whirled back to his designs, and an owlish Bruce blinked at his back.

"How did Meryl Streep remind you of the Hulk's windows?" he asked. Tony was too deep in the science to hear.

 

* * *

 

Tony was strolling through the Avengers Facility foyer, his mind on wedding arrangements, when he heard a familiar voice echo across the wide room. He looked up, and a smile broke across his face.

On the other side of the foyer Happy was escorting Shirley Kemp into the building, her arms wrapped around an enormous Tupperware container full of cookies and her white hair shining in the sunlight. She was slightly stooped, but she looked well.

Tony perked up and walked over to her. Most of the old people he hung around with were supersoldiers, aliens, or in Congress, so Shirley Kemp was a nice change.

"Mrs Kemp," he called when he approached, a smile on his face.

She looked up and her faded eyes glinted. "Mr Stark," she replied warmly. "How are you?"

"Well my insomnia is only mild these days, so…"

"Ah, try getting old!" she leaned in. "I wake up every  _three hours_ to go to the bathroom. Do you know how frustrating that is?"

"Not yet, but I look forward to it." Tony grinned at her. His and Shirley's relationship had been founded on a mutual desire to protect Maggie and consume baked goods, and unfolded from there. "Kemp, you're looking as radiant as ever. What brings you to our–"

"Shirley, hi."

Tony looked over his shoulder. The foyer was split-level, with the upper level overlooking the main strip on the ground floor, and standing at the top of the stairs with one hand resting on the steel banister was  _Barnes_.

Barnes's face was soft in the way it usually only was when he was with Maggie (not that Tony tried to notice), and his voice had been… happy. Barnes's eyes darted to Tony but they weren't suspicious, just acknowledging that he was there.

Shirley beamed up at him. "Hello, big brother!"

And that… Tony had to blink a couple of times, because that was  _weird._

Maggie appeared by Barnes's side. "Shirley! Why are you carrying that, let me help you." She darted down the stairs and tried to take the Tupperware container, but Shirley smacked her hand. Barnes, who'd followed Maggie down the stairs, smiled.

"I'm perfectly capable of carrying baked goods, Margaret Stark." The elderly woman turned to Tony. "Do you want some? We're going to watch some old film reels." She nodded to a bag in Happy's arms.

Tony blinked and looked between the three of them – Barnes and Maggie side by side, hovering as if figuring out how to take the cookies from Shirley, and Shirley smiling like this was just any old family visit.

He took a step back. "I've got… busy." His eyes darted to Maggie and he saw it – he saw her face fall, just for a second before she covered it with a smile and then a smirk.

"Sounds important," she said. The words were light, and she nodded as if to say  _go, it's okay._

After one last glance at Shirley and Barnes (Barnes had leaned in to wrap his metal arm around his sister, and she pressed a kiss against his cheek) Tony fled, frowning.

As he sped-walk blindly in search of his lab, Tony stewed. He knew Maggie was trying so hard to be understanding and to not rub her relationship with Barnes in his face. She didn't demand that they socialize. She  _got_ it.

But Tony couldn't help but feel like he was letting her down.

 

* * *

 

The next morning Bucky sat by himself in the Avengers kitchen, drinking a cup of the aromatic tea Dr Banner had recommended as he read a book:  _The Handmaid's Tale._ He didn't like the stuff about mind control (hit a little too close to home) but Ms Potts had insisted it was one of the most important books of the twentieth century and so far he had to agree with her.

He heard movement at the doorway, and looked up to greet whichever of his new teammates had shown up for a mid-morning snack.

It was Tony. The billionaire inventor had apparently strolled into the kitchen and frozen at the sight of Bucky there, alone. He wore a suit today instead of his tattered workshop clothes, his hair neatly combed and his wary eyes hidden behind orange glasses. His body vibrated with tension.

Bucky's shoulders hunched and his eyes darted back to his book. He could handle the careful, stony silence from Stark when others were around, but when it was just the two of them in a room the tension was oppressive. He didn't think Stark had any more violent thoughts towards him, but… the bloody and painful history between them was a divide that Tony was apparently (very justifiably) unwilling to cross. The message was very clear:  _I'm tolerating you here, so don't get in my way._ Bucky knew it upset Maggie, not that she'd ever let him see that. And she never talked about it either. It was frustrating to see her close off parts of herself, always wary of her audience, but Bucky had no one to blame but HYDRA and himself.

So he hunkered down and waited for Tony to leave.

Tony moved into the kitchen, and Bucky listened to the sound of the fridge opening and the coffee machine whirring.

Then: "Barnes." Tony's voice was casual and acknowledging, almost like a… like a  _greeting._

Bucky's head snapped up, his eyes wide, and Tony nodded at him.

For a good minute of silence Bucky just  _stared_. Tony watched him from across the kitchen, his arms crossed over his chest as he waited for his coffee to finish brewing.

Then Bucky's brain kicked back into gear. "Sta- Tony." The name he'd settled on twisted up at the end, as if in a question.

Tony didn't look like he knew the answer. He turned, grabbed his coffee, and then walked out of the kitchen.

Bucky stared at the empty doorway for another minute after he left, his thoughts churning. They were greeting each other now? Did that mean Bucky could greet him? What did this mean?

He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He was used to Maggie, who was up front about what she wanted and how she planned to get it. Even Steve, the stubborn jackass, was easy enough to read. Tony Stark was a whole new experience.

 

* * *

 

Two days later, Tony walked into the common room to find Maggie and Barnes on the couch, mid laugh about something. When they looked up and noticed him, the laughter died.

Tony kept his eye-roll  _mental_ , then said: "Hey, Mags. Barnes."

Maggie's eyes shot wide open and she glanced from Tony to Barnes. Barnes gave her a small shrug, then turned back to the doorway.

"Tony," he acknowledged.

Maggie's eyes went even wider. "Hey Tony," she replied, her voice low as if she was worried he'd startle like a frightened animal. "Did, uh… did you see what Bruce was working on yesterday?"

And that cut the tension. He and Maggie had a brief chat about how Bruce was a mad genius disguised as a sleepy professor, and even Barnes chimed in, mentioning that he'd heard Bruce muttering about harnessing cosmic powers to travel dimensions while they'd been in the elevator together. After a few minutes Tony ruffled Maggie's hair, dodged her annoyed swat, and walked out.

Once he was out of sight, he stopped in his tracks and paused to reflect.  _Weird._ He cocked his head.  _But not awful._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you comment here with any form of Tony, Bucky, or Steve hate, allow me to offer you an alternative: don't.
> 
> Please subscribe, kudos, and comment to let me know what you think!


	2. Part Two

After that, things were almost easy. Tony and Barnes exchanged casual greetings whenever they saw each other, and sometimes mutually participated in group conversations.

Sam and Rhodey (the "normal ones", as they'd dubbed themselves) bullied everyone else into joining in for a movie night, so on Saturday evening they gathered in the common room with popcorn and drinks and a very-nearly-violent argument about what movie to watch. Peter and Clint had shown up so the final decision went to them; they decided on  _A Bug's Life_ , of all movies, and Peter settled down upside-down on the couch.

"This event is juvenile," Tony proclaimed as he fetched his popcorn and sat dramatically on Pepper's lap in the one-person sofa. She instinctively wrapped her arms around him to steal his popcorn.

"You should be right at home then," Maggie snarked from a few seats away. She and Barnes sat side-by-side, their legs tangled together.

"Shh, the movie," Wanda hissed, and they all fell silent to watch. (This silence lasted approximately one and a half minutes until Bruce blurted out: "Those ants are anatomically incorrect", which started a snark war about how offended Scott Lang would be by this movie, and devolved into general banter about the unfolding plot of grasshoppers exploiting ant labor).

Halfway through the next movie ( _Hairspray_ , which had been  _Natasha's_ suggestion), Maggie fell asleep on Barnes's shoulder. Tony tried not to notice how relaxed and  _happy_ she looked as she slept.

Tony liked messing with people while they slept – a hangover from his childhood as a prankster and the many many drunken parties he'd been to. He'd learned that Maggie was difficult to mess with in her sleep, after she'd almost broken his hand when he tried to draw on her face.

So he'd prepared. When the last movie ended and the Avengers began to murmur about heading to bed, Tony retrieved a small, innocuous-looking pouch from behind a bookshelf and stalked toward the sleeping Maggie.

There was a tense moment when Barnes sensed Tony approaching and looked over his shoulder with a confused look on his face. For a long moment Barnes just stared at him, frozen a few feet away with the open pouch in his hand.

And then understanding crossed Barnes's face. And he  _grinned._

A few moments later, Pepper looked up and sighed. "Tony, you know that's not a good idea."

Tony didn't reply. He was too busy sprinkling his sleeping sister with glitter while Barnes kept very still, his eyes glinting with laughter.

Avengers around the room snorted. Sam whispered: "Rhodey's out too, get him."

Tony would never turn down an opportunity to cover Rhodey in glitter.

 

When Maggie woke up she instantly noticed the sparkling glitter in her hair, over her face, and all through her clothes. She spluttered and shoved away from the laughing Barnes, pawing at her shirt.

"You  _bastard_ ," she hissed, then narrowed her eyes at Barnes. "Hang on." Slowly her gaze slid from Barnes, across the room of laughing Avengers, and rested on Tony. " _You_."

He put a hand to his chest, feigning confusion. "Me?"

Her mouth fell open, and she glanced back to Barnes. He winked at her. Her mouth snapped shut again with a  _click,_ and she looked between Barnes and Tony with a venomous glare.

"I will have my revenge," she warned them, and then darted toward Tony. He tried to escape but she had the unfair advantage of super-soldier serum, so ten seconds later he was ineffectually trying to push her foot off his chest as she ruffled her hands through her hair over him, raining down glitter.

When she finally let him up she was still glaring, but under the expression Tony could see  _glee_. She was glad they'd teamed up, even if it meant she was going to be sparkly for the next week.

Across the room, Rhodey grunted and jerked awake. "What the… what the  _hell_?"

 

* * *

 

A week after the movie night, Steve pulled Tony aside at the end of a meeting with the analysts. Natasha was still in the room, but she was looking over a folder of notes and expertly pretending not to eavesdrop.

"Hey," Steve said hesitantly, "I'm… I'm glad to see you and Bucky getting along." His eyebrows were drawn together and his expression was that earnest,  _I only want the best for you_  one that Tony always found half irritating, half endearing. They got on much better these days, though Barnes remained a sticky point.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Whatever, you're just glad I'm not trying to beat him up anymore." There was a crackle of tension. "Too soon?"

Steve huffed a laugh. "Nah, I guess that's true too."

Natasha had been sitting back in her comfortable leather swivel chair, very carefully not giving a shit, but at that she chimed in: "I'm just glad that Bucky's not beating  _me_ up any more."

Steve looked mortified. "Natasha, you should've said–"

She smirked. "Oh calm down Steve. So he shot me a few times, it's all blood under the bridge."

Steve rubbed his forehead. "I don't think I'll ever know what's going on in your head."

"Good."

"How's that going for you, Nat?" Tony asked, plunging his hands into his suit pockets. "Living side by side with the guy who – by my count – shot you twice, tried to murder your old boss, and choked you out on a cafeteria table?"

Natasha's cool green eyes fell on him. "Keeping score?"

"Apparently I'm the only one who is."

She crossed one leg over the other. "The Winter Soldier has been in my life for a long time." She looked right into his eyes. "So has the Wyvern."

Tony tried not to glare. Flippant, indifferent – that was the mantle he always wore.

Natasha continued: "The Winter Soldier shot me, but the Wyvern would have if he hadn't." Her shoulders straightened. "The only reason I'm alive today is because Clint saw a violent loveless murderer doing jobs for a cruel organization and decided to give her another shot. He believed I could offer the world more than death, and he decided to trust me. A stupid decision which should have gotten him killed, but it meant… everything to me." She shrugged one shoulder. "And one person believing in me turned into two, turned into five, turned into…" she counted on her fingers. "Lots."

Tony eyed her down, and she didn't flinch from his gaze. She never had. After a few more seconds of silent staring, Tony turned on his heel and walked out.

Steve turned to Natasha. "Why'd you say all that?"

She leaned back in her chair and picked up her manila folder as if nothing had happened. "Because he needed to hear it."

 

* * *

 

A week later, Maggie went missing.

Missing in the loosest sense of the word, because even though they didn't know  _where_ she was, they knew exactly what she was doing and who she was with (or rather, who she'd gone to fight).

A few days ago they'd gotten wind of a pro-HYDRA organization attempting to mimic the defunct tyrannical group. They'd been dabbling in weapons dealing, political manipulation and human trafficking, and they'd also started making threats against the Avengers. They were a low priority really, a bunch of fanatic try-hards, but there'd been rumors that they'd developed weapons designed to target specific Avengers.

Maggie had been heading the team of analysts looking into the group (they called themselves the  _Serpents_ ), when that morning, as the analysts put it, she stopped in the middle of her work, got to her feet, and marched out of the operations room. She hadn't been seen since, and F.R.I.D.A.Y. wasn't disclosing her location.

The Avengers had gathered in the operations room, trying to figure out where she'd gone. They were all worried, talking over one another as they theorized locations of the Serpents' base, but their stress levels didn't hold a candle to Tony and Bucky's.

Tony paced back and forth across the central dais of the operations room, his mind working mile-a-minute. Theories and tracking equations flowed across his tongue just as quickly as insults against Maggie's general intellect and life preservation instincts. He barely even noticed Barnes, who was as silent and still as a statue as he eyed the security feeds of Maggie's last few moments in the facility. His lips were pressed so tightly together they were white, and his grey eyes were hard.

"– don't know how stupid you have to be to leave behind a literal team of superheroes to go fight crazy assholes by yourself–" Tony ranted, his fingers twisting through geographic projections.

Natasha cut him off: "She'd have a reason for leaving without telling us, she'd have done the calculations of her chances fighting with us versus alone–"

"I think we all know why she went alone," Tony snapped, "She'd put herself into any amount of harm to protect us, regardless of her chances of success."

"The Serpents' activity has been restricted to the States so far, so their headquarters is likely to be here too," Rhodey said, clearly hoping to cut through Tony's rising temper.

"No duh," Tony grit out. "I've already isolated them to the west coast."

"Vision, you got anything?" asked Steve, his hair askew from where he'd been running his hand through it.

"Unfortunately not," Vision replied, his voice tense. "Wherever Maggie is, she isn't on any CCTV cameras or sparking any police reports."

"That could be good," Bruce pointed out.

"Or very bad," Tony replied.

Sam sighed. "As much as I disagree with her methods, Maggie knows what she can handle, right? Surely she wouldn't go non-contact unless she was sure of herself."

"Like I  _keep saying_ ," Tony said, "if she thought we were in danger she'd head in with no backup and no plan. She's a  _goddamn moron_ – _"_

"Okay," Barnes said, speaking for the first time since they'd all arrived in the operations room. He gestured to the security camera feed, where he'd zoomed in on Maggie's face as she walked out of the operations room. "I can't say for certain but it looks to me like Meg figured something out in her research – not just the Serpents location but something about what they were up to. And this" – he gestured to the look on her face: determined, her eyes glinting – "Isn't what she'd look like if she was going into a suicide mission. She's not  _sad_ , she's confident. Whatever she's flying into, she thinks she can handle it." Barnes' hard grey eyes softened a little. "She  _can_ handle herself, but–"

"Excuse me if I don't feel reassured," Tony interrupted. "You haven't exactly kept Maggie out of danger in the past."

The words dropped like a lead weight. Throughout the operations room people tensed up and slowly, cautiously, turned to look from Tony to Barnes. Wanda took a physical step back from the sudden crackling emotions. Tony hesitated in the middle of tracking the Serpents, his gut churning.

Barnes turned on Tony and his eyes flashed. "Excuse me?"

And just like that, the second of regret Tony had felt flared up and shriveled as he remembered a metal hand digging into his armor, remembered that very face cold and dead on a black and white screen. He took a step forward. "Oh, I think you heard me."

Steve and Rhodey both shoved between Barnes and Tony – Steve stared down Barnes, and Rhodey planted a hand on Tony's chest.

"Back off!" he commanded, and Tony turned away with a snarl. As he turned, he saw Barnes shoot a glare over Steve's shoulder.

Natasha, the only one who hadn't been staring at Tony and Barnes, cleared her throat. "A transmission just came in." She brought up a holographic screen with a set of coordinates. "Maggie's decided to invite us along."

There was a moment of tense silence as the gathered Avengers stared at the glowing coordinates. And then, as one, they snapped into action.

 

* * *

 

The Avengers descended on a seething nest of Serpent agents.

"Hey guys," came Maggie's voice over the comms once they were in range. The Avengers let out a collective breath of relief, and Barnes ran a shaky hand over his face. "So as you might notice these guys aren't very happy–"

"Maggie what the  _hell were you thinking_?" Tony hissed, and dove out the back of the Quinjet to jet down to the Serpent base.

"Uh, I was thinking that these guys had spent months setting up a series of anti-Avengers traps and that I'd disable those before we all hit the base."

"Why didn't you tell us?" demanded Bucky.

"Because you'd have stopped me. And the Serpents were going to move a majority of their prisoners to another location like, now, so there was a time crunch."

Tony felt like he was spitting venom when he hissed back: " _You should have_ –"

"Fight with each other later," Steve cut in, his voice terse. "Fight the Serpents now."

And the Avengers moved in.

 

* * *

 

Maggie had long since cleared out the Serpents' nasty basement traps – EMPs, motion-sensor explosives, DNA-targeted missiles, cages, and dozens of other clever but painful traps designed to exploit individual Avengers' weaknesses. There'd even been some kind of Hulk-proof room that was scary in how effective it looked. She'd only managed to destroy it all by slipping in with no warning and no sound, stealthily and speedily obliterating each trap. The Serpents never suspected that she even knew they existed before she was ripping them apart from the inside.

This left the upper part of the base perfectly vulnerable for the Avengers to attack.

As she met up with the rest of the team and joined them in going after the Serpents, she noticed an odd tension amongst them. It took her a few minutes, but she soon isolated that tension to two people: Tony, and Bucky. They fought as efficiently and lethally as ever, but something about the way they moved and spoke had Maggie's hackles rising. There was anger, and fear, and guilt… some of it directed at her (and fair enough, she knew what she'd signed up for when she left with no warning), but not all. Something had happened.

It kept her on edge for the rest of the fight, through the cleanup, and as they all filed into the Quinjet. She was vaguely aware of Natasha pointing out that this wasn't the only Serpents base, and that some of their agents had managed to escape. She filed that away for later.

When Maggie sat down in her usual seat on the Quinjet she tensed, wondering whether Tony or Bucky would be the one to snap and start yelling at her. Tony kept shooting her crotchety, wounded glances, whereas Bucky's eyes warred between relief and exasperation. He'd checked her over for injuries the moment he'd spotted her in the middle of the Serpent base, and seemed to fold in on himself when he found her unharmed.

It turned out neither Bucky nor Tony got a chance to yell at her, because once they were safely in the air Steve got out of his seat, marched over to Maggie and… gave her the most heart-breaking  _I am disappointed in you_  expression that she'd ever seen in her life.

Her heart shot into her mouth. "Steve, I…"

He held up a hand, and she shut her mouth. "No," he said, and folded his arms across his chest. "Let's talk about this."

 

For the whole hour-long Quinjet ride back to the Facility Steve painstakingly went over every decision Maggie had made from the moment she'd started researching the Serpents to the moment the Avengers arrived at the base. He dissected her decisions, outlined the consequences of her actions, and explained all the alternative things she could have done: alerting even a few other Avengers so they could alert the rest when the coast was clear (Natasha readily volunteered for this role), alerting them all and taking the time to explain the situation (Maggie wasn't convinced of that one, but she hadn't had a lot of time to think it through), or trusting the Avengers to evade the traps so they could take down the Serpents as a team.

The interrogation was exhausting, and at the end Maggie was kicking herself for not trusting her team. Because that was what it came down to – she'd been so afraid of their vulnerability that the intel about the anti-Avengers traps the Serpents had planned kickstarted something instinctive and primal in her. But, as Steve had very rightly pointed out, this was their job too. They knew what they were doing.

The whole time, Bucky and Tony sat on opposite ends of the Quinjet and tried to ignore each other, though Maggie didn't miss the occasional glare they shot in each other's direction. Her stomach churned.

When they arrived at the Facility Maggie felt very small and very foolish, and meekly apologized to each Avenger as they stepped off the Quinjet. Bucky brushed his hand against hers and showed with a glimmer of his eyes that she was forgiven – but then his gaze slid back to Tony, hardened, and he walked out of the Quinjet.

Tony was last to leave the jet. But instead of stopping by her side at the top of the ramp he strode right past, his dark eyes pointedly not looking at her.

Maggie marched down the ramp after him. "Tony." He stopped. The hangar was empty now, leaving just Tony in the empty space and Maggie at the foot of the jet. She sighed. "Talk to me."

He didn't turn around. "What do you want me to talk about." His voice was low, flat. Dangerous.

"Whatever it is that's wrong," she murmured. "I know you're angry at me for leaving by myself, and I'm  _sorry._ This… this isn't just about that, though, is it?"

His shoulders stiffened. "What makes you say that?"

"Something happened, I can tell. You know I can."

"Maybe we should call  _you_ Hawkeye," he said bitterly.

"Tony,  _spit it out._ "

"But I can't!" he snapped back as he whirled around, his eyes ablaze. "Because if I do then  _I'm_ the asshole, because I'm the one who can't let go of the past, who can't let go of the fact that the guy living in my house is the same one who  _killed my parents_ and  _kidnapped my sister_."

Maggie's shoulders slumped. But she didn't even try to say anything, because Tony wasn't done.

"And it's not even that," he continued, his hair askew and his hands balling. "I can't even define why exactly I'm furious with Barnes and that frustrates me, I'm… I'm angry at myself because I don't want to be angry at you for being  _happy_ , because  _I'm_ the one making this situation difficult, because  _I can't let go._ "

"I'm not angry at you," Maggie breathed, her eyes welling at the intensity of Tony's emotions.

"I know, and I think maybe it'd be easier if you were," he said desperately. "Because right now I'm being irrational, and I can tell myself that over and over but it doesn't make it stop–"

"And that's okay. It's not… I don't want you to  _let go_ , Tony, our parents were  _murdered_ –"

"– his hands," Tony cut in, and the non-sequitur surprised Maggie into silence. He drew himself up straight, and the darkness that rolled in over his face made her shiver. "His  _hands._ His metal hand, he used that to smash dad's face in until he died. His flesh hand, he wrapped those fingers around mom's throat and he  _squeezed_ until she ran out of air."

Maggie's breath froze in her chest and she took a stumbling step backwards.

Tony's eyes were riveted on her face. "How do you look at his hands without seeing that? How do you ever see anything but death?" His tone wasn't accusatory – wasn't even angry any more. It was pure desperation, as if he'd fall apart without the answer.

Maggie couldn't breathe, but Tony needed an answer. So she forced herself to breathe: sucked in one long, deep breath and exhaled, as mechanical as a machine. She closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see Tony's haunted face. For a moment she almost said  _I don't know,_ but she knew that was the wrong answer. "It didn't happen overnight," she whispered. "I… for  _years_ every time I saw him, after I got through enough of the programming to remember, I felt nothing but rage _._ The kind of frozen rage that just… crystallizes every violent, vengeful thought." Tony made a wet noise, but she didn't open her eyes.

She breathed again: in through the nose, out through the mouth. "But then… his hands. I had a malfunction in a garden in Tsiblisi, a panic attack. I'd just murdered… just murdered two little boys. And he came up to me, and put his metal hand on my shoulder, and with his flesh hand he… rubbed my back." She opened her eyes to see Tony, his eyes wet and wide open. "He calmed me down, told me  _it will pass._ And then I remembered who he– what he'd done, and I tried to kill him. That was the last time I tried to end his life, that night. Because I had my hand around his throat, and that was the moment I realized that my hands were just as bloody as his."

She shuddered. "Yes, his hands caused  _so much_  violence. But once we broke away from HYDRA, he just  _stopped._ Instead of violence he patched up my wounds, calmed me down,  _created_ things. The hands that took mom's life didn't belong to Bucky. But when they belonged to him – when his body belonged to him – he used them to be kind. Because he is a  _kind_ person, Tony." Her voice shook, and she lifted her chin so she wouldn't burst into sobs. "It breaks my heart that his hands are the ones that ended mom and dad's and so many people's lives. There's nothing that makes that better, for him or for us. And I wish I could make it better for you, but I…" her voice trembled treacherously. "I  _can't._ "

And with that she fled, darting past her brother with the barest breath of "I'm sorry," before she ran through the hangar door.

Tony stood as still as a statue in her wake, his face etched with exhaustion. He closed his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyy, remember how I said these one shots would be fun and light-hearted? My bad. The third part is super long though, hopefully that makes up for it.


	3. Part Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Violence, blood, some swearing. (Or as I call it, the Tony Stark Special).
> 
> Remember to subscribe to the series of All The Little Lights (instead of individual stories) to get updates.

"Doll, I can tell you're not fine – do you want to talk about it?"

"I don't think talking can really help with this situation, Bucky."

"Never know until you try."

"I really appreciate it, I do, but…" sitting on the soft leather couch in Bucky's living quarters, Maggie ran a hand through her hair. "I can't be on either side of this… whatever it is. I won't choose."

Bucky didn't reach out to comfort her; every line of her body was rigid in a way that he knew meant  _do not touch._  "I'm sorry we made you feel like you have to," he murmured. "I didn't want that." He sighed. "I shouldn't have snapped at him, it made everything worse–"

"Don't," she breathed, hunched in on herself. "You don't have to apologize for standing up to Tony when he…" she shook her head. "No, I'm not doing this."

Maggie took a deep breath, clearing her lungs, then hopped to her feet. She stepped toward the other side of the couch, where Bucky sat with his hands on his knees and a wrenched expression on his face. She crouched in front of him. "Hey." He looked up and met her eyes. "You and me, we're okay. We're always going to be okay. Right?"

His eyes softened. "Right. But–"

She silenced him with a quick press of her lips against his. "No buts. We're okay. You have nothing to apologize for." She squeezed his hand. "And neither does Tony. This whole crappy situation, we can live with it." Her eyes flickered. "We can… we can live with it, right?"

He flipped his hand under hers so their palms met. "'Course," he murmured, and leaned forward until his forehead pressed against hers. She met his blue-grey eyes and a smile twitched her lips. "You and me, we're okay."

Her half-smile turned into a grin. "You're such a dork."

"Wonder where I could'a learned that."

"Probably from Steve."

He cocked his head. "Damn, you're right." A pause. "Hey, doll?"

"Yes handsome?"

His hand tightened on hers. "Don't go off alone again without telling someone first. Please."

She let out a breath and her nose bumped against his. "I promise you, I've learned my lesson. I never want to get a talking-to like that from Steve ever again."

"Oh I see, it's  _Steve_ you're worried about. Not me, or your brother–"

"Well duh, have you seen his disappointed face?"

"… You've got a point. He got better at that since 1944."

 

* * *

 

When Tony ended up in his workshop, still in his underarmor and sporting a wicked headache, Rhodey was waiting for him.

Tony took one look at his friend and sighed before heading to his workbench. He threw himself down on his swivel chair and did a few spins, just because, then rolled his shoulders back.

"Alright, let's hear it," he muttered.

Rhodey had crossed his arms, but he didn't look pissed. "Do you really think Barnes would put Maggie in danger?"

Tony bit back his initial snappy reaction, and closed his eyes. He thought about how Maggie and Barnes were with each other, how they moved as one at the first hint of trouble, how they always found each other at the end of each mission. He replayed, in painful detail, a moment from a mission a few weeks back: they'd all been standing around after the end of the fighting when a bomb went off right at their backs. Tony's suit had automatically slid over his body, but not before he saw Barnes throw an arm around Maggie and use his body to shield her. It had been too quick for thought, and Tony knew that those actions were pure reaction – his body's deepest instinct was to protect Maggie.

Tony sighed. "No."

"So why'd you say that?" Rhodey rested his exo-suit covered hip against the workbench.

"I don't know."  _Because I was scared._ "I guess…" his face hardened. "I don't trust him."

Rhodey cocked his head. "Do you even know him?"

Tony opened his mouth, and then shut it.

He  _thought_ he did. He knew all the big, painful moments of Barnes' life: he knew about his service during the war, about his fall and his lost arm. Thanks to the leaked HYDRA files he knew all the intricate details of the tortures Barnes had suffered. He knew the makeup of his metal arm, knew what Barnes had done to the Stark family and knew the stories Maggie had told about their time on the run. And yet.  _Do you even know him?_

Tony blinked. He didn't think he'd had a conversation with Barnes that had lasted longer than ten words. They didn't even spend very long together in the same room, if they could help it. What did that make them, if they knew everything about each other and yet hadn't spoken?

_Strangers,_ his mind answered.

Rhodey took in Tony's wide, darting eyes, and reached over to pat his shoulder. "Just something to think about."

 

* * *

 

Maggie and Tony reconciled the next day. Instead of a heartfelt mutual apology and conversation, Maggie strode into the workshop, tossed a banana at Tony's head, and then they both launched into an argument about the merits of mechanical versus electrical engineering. Right away, they were back to normal.

Things were tense around the facility for a few days, but when it became clear that Tony and Bucky weren't about to start waging war in the corridors everyone settled down. They were prickly in each other's presence and stopped greeting one another, but it seemed they'd mutually decided that ignoring each other was the best way to move forward.

Maggie and Steve traded the occasional despairing look, but otherwise no one acknowledged the new baseline.

 

* * *

 

Tony had decided to channel his frustration and confusion into helping the Avengers analysts track the Serpents. It turned out the Serpents had another base, and their main forces were still carrying out asshole deeds in the name of HYDRA. Normally Tony didn't get too involved with the analyst side of things – he had F.R.I.D.A.Y. for that, and this was more Maggie's area, but he needed brain work and the Serpents provided the perfect target.

So he was in the operations room when Maggie stiffened at her station, stared at her holoscreen for a few seconds, then sighed. "I found them."

His head jerked up. "What?"

She gestured at her screen. "I found the base. And I'm telling you all instead of going to take care of this by myself." She chewed her lip. "Though even I might struggle with this one alone. Look, the satellite can't pick up any data about their base – they must have lined it with lead or something."

Tony came up to stand beside her and dropped a hand on her shoulder. "Look at you, becoming a team player."

She slapped his hand away. "Like you can talk. C'mon, let's go tell the others."

 

* * *

 

After a lengthy briefing and a short Quinjet ride to the Serpents' base in a Michigan, the Avengers found themselves in the midst of a raging battle. The base was a sprawling concrete and metal structure, low to the ground, in an industrial district. It didn't look like much from the air, but the instant the Avengers approached the base it went into override, with agents swarming out armed with all kinds of misappropriated alien weaponry and machinery-frazzling projectiles. The Serpents even had a few old HYDRA Quinjets, which buzzed through the air after the flying Avengers.

Tony was happily rocketing across the Serpents forces, peppering them with repulsor blasts, when Wilson called over the comms: "Barnes? Dammit, Barnes, check in."

Silence.

"What was his last position?" Steve grit out. Tony could see him out of the corner of his eye, trying to barrel through a twenty-strong group of Serpents armed with anti-tank weapons.

"He'd circled around to the northeast corner," Sam replied. "Said he could see some kind of entrance to the base. I lost visuals though, and… yep, his tracker's gone off."

"I'm pinned down," came Maggie's terse voice, and Tony looked over to her position – she'd been grounded by a ground-to-air projectile, and after unsnaring herself from the wire mesh of the projectile she was now plowing her way through Serpents agents. She'd kept her response short, but Tony could hear her panic in her carefully calm voice and the way she devastated the Serpents around her. Her report hadn't even been strictly necessary, but everyone on the team knew what it meant:  _I can't get to him._

"Is anyone near the northeast corner?" Steve called.

Tony checked his position. "Yours truly," he said, only a little begrudgingly. "I'll check it out."

He flicked his hands and shot down to the last place Barnes' tracker had let out a signal: a narrow alley leading up to what they thought was the outer edge of one of the Serpents' buildings – a squat, concrete building with no windows. Tony landed in the alley, kicking up dust, and scanned his surroundings. The Serpent building resisted his scanners (Maggie was right about them using some kind of cloaking material), but there was a rusty green metal door set in the wall facing the alley.

Tony rolled his eyes and strode toward the door, his metal boots clanking on the ground. Barnes, for some reason, had thought that going into the Serpent base with no backup and no comms was a good idea. And now, joy of joys, it had fallen to Tony to make sure the idiot wasn't dead.

Tony was formulating a scathing one-liner to offer Barnes when he found him as he laid one gauntleted hand on the green door to rip it away from the wall. But the moment he touched the rusty metal there was a blinding blue light, a concussive  _boom_ , and the ground swallowed him whole.

 

Tony opened his eyes to the feeling of  _cold_ pressed against his back. For a few moments he frowned upward: above him stretched a ceiling of metal, pipes, and wires, barely visible in the dim lighting provided by small fluorescent bulbs along the walls. It reminded him of an abandoned train tunnel.

He lurched upward, groaning as his head reeled at the movement, and reached down to push himself to his feet. He flinched when he felt cool concrete under his palm. His  _bare_ palm. He glanced down but the reassuring red and gold metal armor was missing – he was left in just his grey underarmor outfit, sitting in a dark underground tunnel.

"Shit." He shot to his feet and glanced around wildly.

Good news: his armor wasn't missing.

Bad news: It was deactivated.

The Iron Man lay on its back a few paces away, the arc reactor and eye slits dark. Its metal limbs sprawled lifelessly on the concrete ground. Tony shivered at the image, then blinked a few times to get his brain in gear.

_Right._ He'd programmed the armor to eject him if it was ever deactivated by an EMP, after that time Emil Tessler had trapped him inside the armor and dropped a building on him. He could get it working, given enough time, but… a  _boom_ went off somewhere in the distance, and dust shivered down from the ceiling.

Tony looked up and eyed his surroundings. Machinery lined the whole tunnel ceiling: hinges, gears, wires… he took a few moments to trace the logic of it all, then mentally kicked himself. Of course: the alley had been a trap. The minute he applied pressure to that green door the machinery lying in wait beneath the alleyway had sprung into action; there'd obviously been some kind of alien-tech-reinforced EMP, powerful enough to knock out even the nanotech (man, he was going to figure that out when he got the chance), followed by a knock-out blast, and then the whole alley just – split down the middle and sucked the unwitting Avenger into the dank tunnel below. He had to admit, it was pretty damn smart _._

He checked his watch, but the EMP had fried that too. He had a sudden, horrible thought: if he'd still had the arc reactor keeping shrapnel out of his heart then he'd be in a lot of trouble after that EMP.

Tony circled, and noted that the tunnel he'd found himself in stretched outward and branched into more tunnels. Apparently he'd fallen like a rat into a maze.  _Shit._

Another distant boom went off, and Tony remembered the battle raging above the surface. Who knew how long it would take for the rest of the Avengers to fall into the green-door trick, or some other Serpent trap. Maggie had been right to be worried.

He took a few steps towards his armor, but then tripped over…  _shit,_ over the outstretched leg of an unconscious man in dark Serpent armor. Tony yelped and hopped away from the man, then frowned. The Serpent was out cold, his arm twisted at an impossible angle and his temple bleeding. Were the Serpents falling for their own trap?

He looked up and spotted more bodies littered along the dark tunnel floor, some of them bloody. A whole team of Serpents. This trail of bodies led to a set of metal doors, which hung haphazardly on their hinges. Something or someone had wrenched those doors inwards.

_Barnes._

Tony recreated the scenario in his mind – Barnes falls into the green door trap, lands in the middle of a waiting squad of Serpents, and fights his way into the warren of the Serpents base. Tony sighed, and relieved one of the crumpled Serpents of his semiautomatic.

No armor, no comms, no backup. Nothing but his underarmor, a pair of sneakers, and a stolen gun. He cast one longing look at his disabled armor.  _I'll come back for you._ Then he walked through the broken metal doors, keeping his footsteps light like Maggie had taught him. He supposed he'd better find Barnes.

 

The bowels of the Serpent base were a freaking maze. Each dingy, poorly lit tunnel looked exactly like the last one, twisting and turning back on themselves. Tony knew he could find his way back to the green door trap thanks to his eidetic memory (not that he really wanted to) but anyone else would be so lost by now.

Because of the warren of intersecting corridors and tunnels, Tony had thought finding Barnes would be difficult. But it turned out all he had to do was follow the sound of gunfire.

He didn't come across any Serpent agents as he crept towards the echoing gunshots, shouts, and clanking metal. The corridor opened up into a low-ceilinged open space filled with metal support pillars; some kind of underground warehouse. It was filled with huge wooden packing crates, so Tony couldn't get a clear look at the whole space, but it was obvious from the loud echoes that the fight was happening in here. He crept forward and pressed his back against the nearest crate, straining to figure out where the enemy was. Dim orange lights gave the warehouse an eerie vibe.

"Surrender,  _Soldat!_ " cried a sharp voice. The echoes made it impossible to tell how far away the speaker was. "Surrender now, and we'll reprogram you rather than kill you for your treachery!"

Right. These guys were into HYDRA. Figures they'd be into the whole 'asset' thing as well.

After a few moments of silence, Barnes's voice rang out: "Kiss my ass." The words were followed by three ear-splitting gunshots and the  _thud_ of flesh hitting concrete. Tony's mouth quirked.

Gunfire rang out again, volleys of what sounded like machine gun fire, and Tony flinched when bullets sparked against the concrete to his right. He slipped sideways, flitting from crate to crate to try and get around the Serpents. His ears strained, picking up the sounds of heavy footsteps and shouts of " _over there!_ " and " _fire!_ " over the gunfire.

Crossing his fingers, Tony pulled himself up a pile of crates until he was hunched over on top of them, his head nearly brushing the ceiling. And finally he saw what was going on: bodies littered the warehouse but there were still about ten Serpent agents moving through the maze of packing crates, dressed in dark green tactical suits and armed to the teeth with guns and –  _were those machine gun bayonets?_ Tony dropped flat onto his crate so they wouldn't see him.

Out of the corner of his eye he caught a flash of metal and swung his gun up, heart in his mouth.

But it wasn't a Serpent agent. He'd caught a glimpse of Barnes, the orange light gleaming on his black and gold arm and his dark hair. But he'd slipped behind a packing crate before Tony could really register his presence; looked like he was planning to circle in front of the Serpents and ambush them. Smart. Tony wriggled forward, his gun up and ready to cover Barnes if he needed it.

But then Barnes slid around the packing crate, his back against the wood as he peeked around the corner, and Tony's eyes widened.

The hundred-year old veteran wasn't in good shape. He listed to the left as he stood against the crate, and blood seeped from a cut above his ear, coating the entire right side of his face. The tacky scarlet blood glinted sickly in the low light. Barnes had stolen a Serpent weapon as well and propped it awkwardly in his right hand because… it looked like he'd lost all control of his left arm. The metal limb hung like a deadweight from his left shoulder, and as Barnes ducked his head back from the edge of the crate the arm swung limply, uselessly.  _The EMP._

"Oh boy, this isn't going to be good," Tony muttered to himself.

But he didn't have another second to freak out about just how unarmed ( _ha_ ) he and Barnes were, because at that moment the team of Serpents streamed past Barnes's hiding spot.

Tony had thought that Barnes looked like a sorry sight, covered in blood with only one working arm, but that thought abruptly imploded the second Barnes fell on the Serpent agents.

He started with a spray of gunfire across the three agents at the back of the group, dropping them instantly. When the others turned and swung their guns up, he dove forward and rolled into the center of the group, twisting elegantly around the limp metal arm, then shot to his feet and landed a devastating headbutt to the nearest agent's face.

The  _crunch_ of the agent's skull breaking shook Tony out of his shock. He lifted his gun, aimed, and fired. Rhodey had always teased him for being terrible with actually aiming weapons, but his practice in the firing rage paid off: the agent furthest from Barnes went down with a strangled cry. The Serpents around him swung their guns away from Barnes and looked up in shock. But Barnes didn't react beyond continuing his assault on the remaining members of their team – Tony had a split second to wonder if Barnes had already known that Tony was up there, or if he'd processed the information in that lightning-fast way that the supersoldiers seemed to in the midst of battle.

Then Tony realized that the Serpents had spotted him lying on top of the pile of crates a few dozen feet away. And that he was in the direct line of fire. And that they'd pointed their guns at him.

"Gah!" He rolled sideways and tumbled off the side of the crate just as they opened fire, and winced at the sound of bullets ripping through wood. He landed on the next crate with a  _thunk_ and kept rolling, but the screaming bullets dogging his path had stopped. He looked up just in time to see the Serpents who'd been firing at him collapse to the concrete fall in a boneless heap, two of them bleeding from gunshot wounds and another two felled by well-placed kicks from Barnes.

But Barnes had turned to rescue Tony at the cost of putting the last two Serpent agents at his back. Tony's head jerked up, sweat in his eyes and fingers shaking on his gun, and he saw Barnes stagger forward, overbalance, and pitch forward onto the ground. Tony's mouth fell open. He'd never seen the super soldier be clumsy before, especially not in the midst of battle. But then his gaze fell to the three scarlet holes blooming on the back of Barnes's dark blue uniform.

Tony blinked, but then his attention was caught by the flash of green as the last two Serpent agents ran forward, their gleeful eyes on Barnes's reddening back.

"Oh hell no." Tony slid off the last crate to land light-footed on the warehouse floor, raised his gun, and fired two shots. The Serpents were dead before they hit the ground.

Tony ran to Barnes, who had thankfully not died but was in the process of trying to sit up while only having one functioning arm and three bullets somewhere in his upper chest. Tony helped pull him to a sitting position and was rewarded with a long groan.

"Crap," Tony said, taking in Barnes's bloody uniform. There were no exit wounds on the front of Barnes's chest, which Tony was reasonably sure wasn't good  _(but what the hell do I_   _know_ ), and the wounds in his back soaked his uniform with blood. They wounds were centered around his right shoulder, and Tony didn't think the blood flow was heavy enough to mean that any major arteries were bleeding out.

"Damn it all to hell," Barnes growled, and reached over his shoulder. When his finger brushed one of the bullet wounds he hissed and pulled his hand back, taking purposefully long breaths through his nose. Ignoring the blood on his fingers, he checked his gun's magazine and eyed the fallen Serpent agents for signs of life. His eyes narrowed at the two who'd shot him, then he looked to Tony. "Thanks."

Another distant explosion made the ceiling shudder. The sound of voices echoed into the warehouse from the corridor Tony had entered by, and both his and Barnes's heads snapped in that direction.

"C'mon Barnes, we've got to move," Tony said, pulling at Barnes's flesh arm. "If you die I'll never hear the end of it."

Barnes groaned, but staggered to his feet under Tony's guidance. "You're a charmer, Stark."

"Don't get too charmed, I know you can't resist our Stark ways." Tony winced mentally.  _Why did I say that_? He blustered through it by speed-walking to the other end of the workshop, flapping his hands at Barnes to get him to move faster. Barnes, for his part, seemed reasonably mobile despite the three new holes he'd gained.

They slipped into a new corridor, heading in the general direction of what Tony thought was the other side of the Serpent base. The fighting had been heaviest over there, so hopefully they could find an exit from this subterranean maze or run into some other Avengers. The grimy, dimly lit corridors stretched ahead and around them.

"EMP get your suit?" Barnes asked.

"Sure did.  _And_ my watch." Tony waved the stopped watch under Barnes's nose. "It's a Patek Phillipe, Pepper gave it to me for my birthday."

"Bastards," Barnes replied. He rolled his shoulder to keep the butt of his gun propped up, and winced.

Tony eyed him, not-so-subtly taking in the growing red stain between his shoulders. He wanted to stop and put pressure on the wound, but if they stopped moving now they'd die. "How, uh… how're you doing there?"

Barnes had so far not really looked at him, instead eyeing every exit and angle for enemies, but at that question he looked across at Tony and shot him the most scathing  _are you kidding me_  look that Tony had seen in a long time.

"Right." Tony shook his head. "Got shot three times. Probably not great."

"I'll live," Barnes replied. "Probably. The bullets didn't hit my heart or lungs, but other than that… I don't know. I've probably got about five minutes before the blood loss gets to me."

"A lot of experience with gunshots, huh?"

"You could say that." Barnes held up his gun hand to stop Tony as they approached an intersection, then poked his head out to check that the coast was clear. His metal arm dangled uselessly by his side. After a second he turned back and nodded for Tony to continue.

"Shouldn't I be doing that?" Tony mused.

Barnes looked at him out of the corner of his eye. "No offense, but you look like you're more used to doing this kind of thing in an indestructible metal suit. I might be… not at full capacity, but I know how to do this."

"Not at full capacity?" Tony repeated incredulously, but then shook his head. "Never mind. Like you said, we've got five minutes until you pop your clogs, so let's strategize." They paused so Barnes could clear another intersection. He held up his gun hand again, and the hairs on the back of Tony's neck prickled when he heard distant voices.

"… en route to southeast exit, we've got a breach…" Tony picked up the words as the speaker's voice grew suddenly loud and then quiet again, along with the sound of running boots. They must have been traveling down a parallel corridor not far from Tony and Barnes.

Barnes waited a few more moments, then nodded to Tony and got moving again. The sounds of fighting above the surface were louder now.

"Strategy," Barnes murmured. "Neither of us is going to be much help fighting down here, so the strategy is to get back to the surface and behind friendly lines."

"Makes sense," Tony muttered back, his knuckles white around his stolen gun. A bare hanging light bulb ahead of them flickered, as if the set dresser from every horror movie ever had been through this way. "And sounds like there's a southeast exit we can use. That's… that way." He pointed, and Barnes raised an eyebrow at him. "Why is everyone so surprised by my brilliant sense of direction?"

Barnes just rolled his eyes, and they veered down a new corridor towards the southeast. As they paced down the narrow, dark corridors, Tony reflected that he was glad he'd found Barnes – he felt so  _exposed_ like this, just fabric and skin when he was surrounded by danger. It reminded him of fending for himself in a cave in Afghanistan, just narrowly escaping death by the skin of his teeth. The last time he'd fought without the armor had been…

His eyes flicked to Barnes. The last time he'd fought without the armor Barnes had tried to shoot him in the face.

But he'd felt an unconscious sense of relief when he spotted Barnes back in that warehouse, regardless of how bloody and beaten up he looked. Now, Barnes took the lead in their tense journey through the bowels of the Serpent base, his left shoulder angled forward and his gun held steady in his right hand. His dark hair dangled in his face and sweat prickled his forehead. Tony paced a few steps behind him, trying to remember everything he'd bothered to learn about carrying a gun.

Barnes's shoulders were tense, and every now and then Tony heard a near-silent hiss as he jostled his wounds, but otherwise he showed no sign of his pain. And though Tony had never actually been shot before, he remembered what it felt like to have his chest blasted full of shrapnel. He didn't envy Barnes.

They heard approaching footsteps and ducked into a shadowy alcove. A whole team of Serpents ran past, shouting amongst themselves about the Avengers, and Tony opened his mouth to whisper to Barnes that they should ambush them. But when he looked over at Barnes leaning against the wall, his mouth snapped shut.

Barnes's muscles were coiled and his eyes were fixed on the running Serpents, but every line of his body was taut with pain. The color had drained from his face and his jaw was clenched, and there was a glassy sheen in his eyes that Tony didn't like the look of. Tony's eyes dropped to Barnes's gun hand, which had started to shake.

Half a minute later, Barnes made a nonverbal grunt and stepped back into the corridor. It seemed to take an immense effort.

Tony considered telling him to stop, to lie down, but they both knew that wasn't an option. Barnes didn't need Tony telling him things he already knew. So Tony just followed.

Barnes's boot scuffed against the concrete, a rare display of inattention, and Tony realized that the feeling coiling in his gut was panic. Not that Barnes would get them discovered, or that Tony's backup was bleeding out, but because Barnes was hurt. Tony was  _worried._

"So I don't think I hate you anymore," he said conversationally as they strode down the tunnel. Barnes's cheek twitched. "It's more… you annoy the  _shit_ out of me. Because you've been through terrible things so I should feel sorry for you, right?"

"I don't want you to feel sorry for me-"

"Whatever, I should empathize. But your body and your face took my whole family from me, and what's more you're  _dating_ my  _sister._ I just…" Tony sighed, and sped-walk ahead of Barnes so he could check the next intersection. Barnes didn't protest. "I once told Maggie that this whole thing was a moral minefield, and I was tired of tiptoeing through it."

"You don't seem like the kind of guy who tiptoes," Barnes murmured.

"Huh. Guess you're right."

Barnes took the lead again, and Tony's eyes darted over the dark stain on his back. The sounds of fighting grew closer.

After a little while, Barnes spoke again. "Sometimes I look at you and I feel my arm getting blown off all over again."

Tony blinked, then winced, then eyed the metal arm. He'd analysed the one he'd taken back from Siberia, he knew that there were cybernetic neurons and sensors intricately woven through it – not as sensitive as Maggie's wings, but Barnes would've felt pain when Tony blew his arm off.

For a moment Tony swallowed down a succession of instinctive words. But then he sighed, and said: "I'm sorry."

Barnes's eyes shot wide. "I dunno if you're the one who should be apologizing, pal."

"Me either, but I feel like I should. For that." He nodded at the limp arm and shrugged. They turned a corner and the ceiling rumbled. Tony thought he heard the Hulk's roar.  _We could use you down here, buddy_.

Barnes shook his head. "No, wait. I… I never apologized. To you." He stopped walking and looked at Tony with serious grey eyes.

"We don't have time for this Barnes, I don't know if you noticed but we're in the middle of a–"

"Surroundings are clear," Barnes interrupted. He shifted his weight and his eyes closed for a second, his face flashing with pain.

"Barnes…"

"Tony – I'm sorry." His eyes opened, and Tony felt stunned at the earnestness there. "I'm sorry for… for killing Howard. And I'm sorry for killing Maria." Tony flinched at the name; he'd expected to hear  _your mother_. "I'm sorry for taking Maggie away from you." Barnes took a ragged breath.

Distantly, Tony thought:  _he's in pain and he doesn't think he's going to make it out. I should stop this._

"I'm sorry that Maggie and I didn't come home to you and Steve when we broke away from HYDRA; we were trying to keep you safe. And I'm sorry that I came between you and… and your family." He swallowed shakily. "I'm sorry you had to see your parents die like that. I was going to tell you."

"You were?"

"The moment I saw you and Maggie walk into that base together, I knew she wasn't going to run from you anymore. So I planned to tell you the truth after we squared things at the base and… and to leave it to you to decide what happened to me. But then… well, I didn't get the chance." Barnes blew out a breath and shook his head. "Sorry I didn't say all this sooner."

Tony stared. "You know, you're talkative when you want to be."

But that was the wrong thing to say. Barnes stiffened and turned away with hunched shoulders, then continued walking down the corridor, trudging now. And Tony realized that Barnes really wasn't used to him at all. He didn't know how to tell the difference between a joke made out of spite and a joke that meant… something else. Before he could open his mouth to explain, a blast resounded from somewhere ahead of them, much louder than the last explosions.

Barnes and Tony both flinched back then stiffened at the clear sounds of fighting, followed by the gut-clenching roar of the Hulk. They started forwards, but seconds later there was an even  _louder_ explosion. The sound of this one clapped off the stone walls and rattled Tony's brain, and he flinched as a plume of dust blew down the corridor towards them. Somewhere up ahead he heard crunching concrete and shrieking metal. The floor shuddered under his feet.

When the dust had settled some and it didn't look like the ceiling was going to collapse on them, Tony unwrapped his arms from around his head and glanced at Barnes. The supersoldier's head was ducked between his shoulders and his eyes were wide as he looked back at Tony.

"Keep going?" Tony suggested.

Barnes nodded. They jogged down the corridor, now trailing a smattering of blood droplets, until they stepped through a set of open metal doors into what looked like another wide warehouse space. Only this one had been blown to pieces.

Tony could barely make out the shape of the room past the rubble and the smoke and dust in the air. Half the ceiling had caved in, and limbs poked out from under blocks of concrete and metal. At the other end of the long room a faint shaft of daylight pierced the gloom.

"Bet you anything this used to be the southeast exit," Tony muttered.

They started forward, but skidded to a halt when they heard a shout and saw the shapes of Serpent agents stumbling out of the settling dust.

The one at the front froze, then shouted: "Avengers sighted! Open fire!"

Tony and Bucky dove in opposite directions, tumbling behind mounds of rubble as the Serpents fired potshots after them. Tony rolled and lifted his gun but then five measured, louder shots rang out, and the Serpents fell silent.

Tony poked his head above his rubble cover. Sure enough the Serpents had hit the deck. His head swiveled, and he spotted the dark shape of Barnes a few yards away with a gun in his outstretched flesh hand.

"Nice," Tony called. He jumped to his feet and dusted off his trousers.

"There'll be more of them," Barnes muttered, his gun hand lowering. He took a step, wobbled, and then slumped to the ground.

"Barnes!" Tony ran over to the fallen Avenger and rolled him over – Barnes eyes were open but clouded with pain, and he'd barely kept his grip on his gun. "C'mon, Barnes, let's…" he looked up and glanced around wildly. "Okay, sit over here." Tony half guided, half dragged Barnes toward a nearby flat slab of concrete sticking vertically out of the ground, and the metal arm dragged in the dirt. He pushed Barnes's back against the concrete. "You press your back against that, Barnes, keep pressure on those wounds. If you die that will be a massive inconvenience for me."

Barnes snorted, then groaned. He pressed his eyes shut and clenched his fist. "I'm not gonna die, Stark. No way I'm letting some wannabe HYDRA assholes knock me off."

"That's the spirit, stay alive on the power of spite."

"S'worked for me so far."

Tony laughed, even as his eyes tracked anxiously over Barnes's screwed-up face. Then he heard heavy boots and shouts from the direction of the daylight he'd seen. "Oh right. Wannabe HYDRA assholes. You stay here, tin man."

"No, wait–"

But Tony was already running away at a crouch, darting from rubble mound to rubble mound, his sweaty hands wrapped around his gun. He resisted a nervous impulse to hum the  _M_ _ission Impossible_  theme under his breath, and circled around the source of the noises.

He came across the first agent by accident. They ran into each other when they both sidled around a fallen pylon, and blinked at each other in surprise. Tony recovered first: he pistol whipped the agent upside the head and watched him crumple, before hopping over his body and creeping towards the next set of heavy footsteps.

For the next two and a half minutes he picked his way through the rubble, picking off Serpents one by one. He strained to recall everything Rhodey had ever taught him about handling guns, and all the times Maggie had tried to teach him about being sneaky. Maybe Steve was right when he suggested that Tony should train more without the armor (not that Tony would ever admit that in a zillion years). He let off a few shots, but the room was so full of debris that no one could identify his location.

There was dust in his eyes, his throat. He could barely see in the dark, dusty room, and his nose was clogged with the smell of ash, blood, and gunpowder. He relied on the element of surprise as he slipped after the Serpents – most of them never saw him coming. Who expected Tony Stark to come after them without the armor?

At one point he got so close to the exit that he could see the sky: the shaft of sunlight streamed in through a jagged hole in the ceiling, a sweet promise of clean air and blue sky with a pile of rubble stretching up to it. It would be a mission to climb up the rubble and squeeze through the hole, but the fresh air wafting down was tantalizing. Tony thought about going up and getting backup, but… his gaze turned back to the room of smoking rubble. He couldn't leave Barnes.

So he circled back, coming up behind one Serpent and clonking him on the head with a brick. Two more rounded a pile of rubble and Tony shot them both before they could give away his position.

He'd almost circled all the way back to where he thought he left Barnes when he heard an intake of breath from behind him. He spun around and used the last round in his gun to take out the Serpent pointing a rifle at him.

"How many more of you weirdos are there?" he hissed under his breath as he turned back around.

As it turned out, the answer was  _one._ Tony turned around, an empty gun in his right hand and dead men's blood on his left, to see a single Serpent agent sneering at him from the top of a pile of shattered concrete. His gun, a long dark rifle that glinted in the low light, lifted until Tony could see right into the black eye of the barrel. Tony couldn't see the agent's eyes because of the dark goggles that all the Serpents wore, but he easily saw the sneer that lifted his lips.

Tony's hands lifted of their own accord, as if the instinctive  _I surrender_ movement might save his life. His body felt like it had been doused in ice water. He should have been thinking of something to say or something he could do to stop the agent squeezing the trigger, but he only saw faces: Pepper. Maggie. Rhodey. Peter.

The Serpent's smirk tightened and his hands shifted – but then there was a flash of black metal, a dull  _clunk_ , and the guy crumpled to the ground.

For five silent seconds Tony stood frozen with his hands in the air, staring at the space where the Serpent's gun barrel had been. Then he blinked at the fallen Serpent, out cold where he'd fallen halfway down the pile of debris. Slowly, his eyes tracked from the crumpled guy to the projectile that had taken him down.

"Barnes," Tony croaked. "Did you just throw your arm at this man?"

In response, he got a groan and a wet-sounding cough. Tony followed the sound and spotted Barnes half-slumped at the base of another pile of concrete, lying on his front with his torso propped up by his right arm. He must have crawled from his hiding spot. His metal arm – which was apparently detachable – lay a few feet away from the fallen Serpent agent, but there was still a sliver of metal at his left shoulder joint. Barnes looked up through his tangled hair and their eyes met.

Barnes coughed again. "Looked like you needed a hand."

"A… hand," Tony repeated weakly. For another second they just stared at each other.

Then Tony burst into laughter. The sound was high and hysterical, and after a moment Barnes joined in. Their laughter echoed across the rubble of the blown-up underground room, over the unconscious Serpent agent and Barnes's detached metal arm. After a few moments Barnes's low, pained chuckles spurred Tony to stumble toward him and help haul him to his feet. Barnes groaned between his teeth but didn't stop laughing.

"Let's get you out of here, funny man," Tony said, still sniggering. Barnes slumped most of his weight on him – damn, he was heavy – so Tony wrapped his remaining arm over his shoulders, then slung his own arm around Barnes's waist. They staggered back the way Tony had come. As they approached the fallen Vibranium arm Tony scooped it up and tucked it under his free arm, making Barnes snort with laughter again.

They limped their way back to the jagged hole in the ceiling, giggling helplessly, covered in dust, sweat, and blood. Barnes staggered the whole way there, but Tony didn't let him fall. When they reached the pile of rubble Tony kept a firm grip around Barnes and a keen eye on the steadiest footholds. With much slipping and swearing through gritted teeth, Tony brought Bucky Barnes up into the sunlight.

 

* * *

 

Maggie found them first.

They rounded an exploded building just as she dropped out of the sky with her wings flared and her engines roaring. She looked up, took one look at the two of them staggering together through the battlezone, and burst into tears.

It was weird, because she kept working through the tears. She helped carry Barnes to the waiting medics, coordinated with the rest of the team over comms, and checked Tony over for injuries, but she did it all through a steady stream of tears. Tony, exhausted from his trek through the maze of tunnels and from basically pulling Barnes up a treacherous pile of concrete, couldn't do much other than watch her work with a kind of awed fascination. The battle was mostly over so the rest of the Avengers soon arrived, full of frantic concern for him and Barnes. Rhodey had found his armor at the bottom of the trap and nearly lost his mind with worry.

In the Quinjet on the way back, with Barnes being fussed over by the medics ("he'll be alright once he gets in the Cradle, that supersoldier serum is tough stuff"), Tony wrapped his arm around Maggie's side and squeezed her.

"Are you alright, Mags?"

"Am  _I_ alright? You're the ones who–" her voice hitched, and she resolutely cut herself off. He could see echoes of fear and horror in her eyes; she'd lost both of them, they'd gone completely off the comms and vanished. Tony could hardly imagine how she'd felt.

He rubbed her arm. "We came back, Maggie."

She swallowed, and turned to look him in the eyes. "Together."

A long moment passed. Tony looked to his left, at Barnes lying sedated and bloody on a fixed stretcher. They hadn't reattached his metal arm yet (it was tucked safely under Tony's seat), and he looked oddly small without it. His face was relaxed in his sleep, with his mouth slightly parted and his hair strewn across the pale fabric of the stretcher.

Tony looked back at his sister's worry-etched face. "Yeah," he murmured. "Together."

 

* * *

 

Two days later, Tony used F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s help to get Barnes alone.

He'd been in the medical wing all day yesterday, letting the Cradle work its wonders, and what with Maggie and Steve fussing over him Tony hadn't gone to visit. Last night he got discharged, and thanks to his A.I.'s help (spying) Tony knew that this morning he was in the common room. F.R.I.D.A.Y. drew Maggie away by manufacturing a meeting with the Avengers analysts, and everyone else was resting.

So when Tony breezed into the common room Barnes was sitting alone on one of the soft leather couches, frowning at the TV. He wore sweatpants and a loose green shirt, with the tell-tale lump of bandages around his right shoulder, and his hair was tied up in a bun that looked like someone else (Maggie) had done it. Someone (probably Maggie) had got his metal arm working again and reattached it.

Barnes looked up, spotted Tony, and stilled. He seemed kind of tense, but that could have just been the healing holes in his back.

Tony cleared his throat. "How're you doing, Barnes?"

"Sore," he replied, his eyes focused. "But I've been worse."

"I know."

There was a long silence. Tony paced idly, collecting his thoughts as he gazed about the room.

After too long a pause to be considered natural, Tony clapped his hands together. Barnes jumped.

"Okay, so I feel like a shovel talk is kind of unnecessary here since we both know I could kick your ass" – Barnes's eyebrow cocked but he didn't say anything – " _but_ aside from all the other reasons I had to dislike you, I guess… I worry about Maggie. Always have. So you worry me. But…" he shrugged, and gestured at Barnes. "You seem like an alright guy, all things considered."

Barnes frowned for a few moments before replying carefully: "For what it's worth, everything Meg's told me about you has made me like you. Meeting you in person was kind of a shock to the senses, but I never wanted to…" his mouth twisted.

"Be my mortal enemy?" Tony suggested.

"Yeah, that."

"Alright then," Tony said in a decisive voice. "And the 'shock to the sense' thing? That's not just you."

"Oh." Barnes scratched his head with his flesh hand. "So are we… are we good?"

"Are we  _good_?" Tony repeated in a highly-offended tone. Barnes looked aggrieved, so Tony snorted and let him off the hook. "I'm just messing with you Barnes, you always take me so seriously. Yes, we're good. I might… I might not always be good with you, but it's not you. It's just. You know. Images."

Barnes's eyes darkened. Oh, he knew.

Tony shook off his gloom like a duck shaking off water. "But it isn't your fault, so I'll get through it. So you and I are  _good._ I don't have the attention span to have an arch nemesis anyway, so you'll have to settle for being my…"

Barnes's eyebrows hiked throughout this speech. The word hung between them:  _friend._ But even Tony knew they didn't know each other well enough for that yet, so he finished with:

"Co-habiting, co-working, semi-decent acquaintance with many mutual friends."

"Sounds kinda wordy."

"What are you, my editor? Get off my back, Barnes."

Barnes rolled his eyes, but he was relaxed in a way that Tony had never seen him – at least, not when Barnes was aware that Tony was in the room. It was as if he'd dropped some level of suspicion, or wariness. Or maybe he was just like this with everyone he'd shared a few near-death experiences with. Either way, the lack of tension helped ease the knot in Tony's gut that remembered a bloody, frozen battle in Siberia.

Tony put his hands on his hips. "Now you know about condoms, right? And STDs?"

Barnes's relaxation instantly vanished as he instinctively flinched, and then winced as he pulled his wounds.

Tony continued: "Because I know Maggie's read up on everything under the sun, but you were born like a million years ago–"

Barnes held up the metal hand pleadingly. "Yes, I've been educated, you don't have to worry. Jesus."

"You can just call me Tony."

Barnes's alarmed expression morphed into another eye roll. "You know, it's Meg's birthday soon."

Tony cocked his head. "So it is. You got any ideas?"

"I might."

Tony had already been thinking up guest lists and grand performances that would no doubt embarrass and charm her, but now he reluctantly realized that Barnes might have some insight into what Maggie wanted that Tony didn't. He sighed. "Alright then. Let's hear your terrible ideas."

It was still a little weird, this thing between them, but Tony was quickly coming to the realization that  _most_ people's relationships with their siblings' partners were some level of weird. And this… this wasn't bad.

He sighed, and sat down on the couch beside Bucky Barnes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the next one shot, many Avengers get drunk. But they've got a very good reason to do so.


End file.
